Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Susan George: Well, I don’t know who “our” is in this question; I don’t know who is the “we”. There is many, many questions with “we” in it, and I would hope we could define who is “we” in each one of these questions. But, if the sense of that is how much are “we” in the North responsible, I would say that our responsibility is huge. This is just one more example, but an especially spectacular one, of how a disease which is killing millions – there are other diseases, tuberculosis, malaria, and so on – which could be relatively easy brought under control – I don’t say cured but relatively easily prevented and people could be allowed to live longer lives. A few years ago Kofi Annan asked in a major speech for ten billion dollars a year for these three diseases. Well, ten billion dollars a year frankly in today’s world is peanuts. This is nothing; every single day there’s l500 billion, every day traded on currency markets alone, so ten billion should be for any normal society a completely easy sum to find. We don’t, we don’t do it. And, let’s face it. AIDS may have begun as a disease of rich people in the United States or Brazil. It starts up in the upper scales, particularly among homosexuals, artists, people who take cocaine, and so on. But then it drops very rapidly down into the poorer classes, and now it has become a completely lower class disease and so the people who have it are not that interesting for the powers that be because they’re poor, they don’t consume, and they are just simply not taken into account because they don’t contribute to capitalist production and capitalist consumption so we could find the medicine, but the pharmaceutical companies even went to court trying to prevent the competition of generic drugs. We could allow generic drugs to be exported, but we’re still stymieing that although they can now be produced in some places. The countries in the South can produce them are still not allowed to export them because of patenting laws. So our rules and our stinginess are preventing tens of millions of people from living slightly more normal lives.

by Susan George

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Swami Pragyapad: Answertext will be available soon.

by Swami Pragyapad

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Sydney Possuelo: I cannot speek of Africa without having a lump in my throat that depresses me a little bit. In a certain way we are very very very responsabel for Africa, very responsabel. For everything that is happening now in Africa, the colonisation by Europe, the division and [] by Europe after their economical interests, we cannot now turn our back on it, as we are doing it. Africa is exactly related to the former question of the guy from Basel in Switzerland when he asks about egoism. We are extremely egoisitc concerning Africa, we are turning our backs on Africa and this is terrible. We are responsable and we have to be more solidly. The sorts of solidarity don’t have to be discussed, they speak for themselves. It is a fact that we have to do something urgently for Africa. Africa cannot continue to deliver us cheap workers. Africa is our cradle, and it has to be regarded by tenderness and with our hearts.

by Sydney Possuelo

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Takashi Kiuchi: Our responsibility is huge. AIDS, poverty, all kinds of unfortunate things happening in Africa is our responsibility. It is our responsibility to put all those African people in a huge progress. We must take it as our responsibility-- no question about that.

by Takashi Kiuchi

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Tamas St. Auby: Exactly as big as the epidemic is. But, I would like to add that “our responsibility” is not the right expression for me, not "our" responsibility. I cannot decide for others. For other's people responsibility. I am responsible. This is the clue of the thing, of all the things.

by Tamas St. Auby

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Tania Bruguera:

by Tania Bruguera

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Tavis Smiley: AIDS in Africa. AIDS in Africa, how big is our responsibility? Too big for us to be abrogating our responsibility in the way that we are. We know that AIDS is a pandemic on the African continent, and yet again, because we undervalue, because we devalue human life, suffering in Africa, then it is not raised high enough on the world’s agenda. But our responsibility here is humongous, much too big for us to be shirking it and abrogating it in the way that we are. If for no other reason—if for no other reason then a love of self, our own selfishness. We have got to get a handle on this pandemic called AIDS to protect life around the planet, to protect life all over the globe. So it is a responsibility that’s much too massive for us to be walking away from it in the way that we are. All life is precious. All life has value. And people deserve to be loved just because they exist, no other reason.

by Tavis Smiley

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Tegla Loroupe: Answertext will be available soon.

by Tegla Loroupe

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Thenmozhi Soundararajan: AIDS is not an African problem. AIDS is a human problem. When you look at the epidemic, it is the epidemic of our times. One of the things when you look at why the AIDS emidemic has really hit Third World countries, or particularly the African Continent, is that it gets really - it comes at the intersection of poverty, illiteracy and really what you’re looking at in terms of corporate power. As people in the First World, I think one of the things we have an ethical responsibility is to look at the corporations that are exacerbating the problem. One of the things, it’s one of the criminal things I think around HIV and AIDS, is that for us in the North, particularly in the United States, we see the AIDS epidemic as being over because we have access to drugs that can actually help people and prolong their lives. But those same companies that provide those drugs will not provide them free of charge at a time when the epidemic is leaving millions of children as orphans and decimating countries throughout sub-Sahara and Africa. I think that one of the things that we must really look at, though, is that we have an ethical responsibility to keep those corporations accountable and ask for a lifting of copyright of patents that in the case of humanitarian disaster, which is what we’re seeing in Africa, that we can actually provide drugs free of charge so that families can continue to survive past this epidemic. I think that the other thing that we need to also look at is, what are the policies that our governments exact on the Continent of Africa that allow poverty such at the level that when an epidemic like that comes, systems that are already vulnerable then become utterly devastated. If people aren’t concerned about it right now because they don’t have a relative that’s dying, they don’t have a nation that’s collapsing because of AIDS. What they need to look at then is what happens when you have an entire generation raised by themselves without parents, without proper family structures in the wake of a disaster, and when you have that you have the conditions for fundamentalism and you have the conditions that lead to terrorism. So at some point, we will have that circle back to us. So, while we may not feel that initial violence, we will feel it later in the end. And so, I think that it’s critical that we attack AIDS and the crisis that it is, recognize it as a human problem and really as a challenge for us. Just as we took it as a challenge to reach the moon, we should be able to take it as a challenge to solve the AIDS epidemic and solve it with the right humanitarian aid to the countries and communities that need it immediately. If we don’t, we will bear the burden of that as a human race.

by Thenmozhi Soundararajan

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Tu Weiming: Actually, the AIDS problem is pervasive. It may have been more serious in terms of the origins, in terms of the extensiveness of its negative influence in Africa. But it’s a Chinese problem, it’s an Indian problem, it’s an American problem, it’s a British problem. In this particular sense, how to prevent AIDS is a human problem, it's a human enterprise. This is like smallpox like all kinds of other malaria or socio-communicative and devastative disease. And in this sense what is happening in Africa effects human species as a whole. It is our responsibility; it is the responsibility of governments, civil societies and all human communities in the world. Indeed this issue of AIDS is so sinister, originally it affected only a segment of the society. But when it is spread it becomes one of the most devastating disease in the modern human history and as a result, every person is responsible for this particular issue through education, through understanding, through philanthropically association or through advocacy. And therefore the human race as a whole becomes enlightened, becomes critically aware of the danger of this situation. So precisely because Africa is most seriously affected and a signal, a serious concern for the rest of humanity in this connection, not only those people who are now very actively involved in helping out such as the Gate's Foundation. It is the responsibility of all governments and all individuals. And it is important to note that the whole notion that the because of particular habits of the heart some societies are more seriously affected more than others has to be properly examined.

by Tu Weiming

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Valentina Melnikova: Unfortunately, humanity always reacts to late on such global threats that affect in the beginning several people. Our responsibility consists in the fact that mankind didn’t listen to doctors who told us about the danger of epidemic, and we wouldn't listen that we didn’t undertake any medical, economical and social endeavours in order to stop the AIDS epidemic at the beginning. The humanity bethought only after the epidemy was already spead to millions of people all over the world. Responsibility is in the fact that both the problem of AIDS and the problem of Africa which is connected with it are on the margin of political and economical interests. There was no direct threat for trade, economy,and nobody did pay any attention to it at the beginning. United Nations Organisation is responsible for a lot for it. The System of United Nations emerged as incomplete to localize such a threat at the very beginning of its development. And now we have a situation when every country has to struggle with the AIDS epidemic as far as it has possibilities and knowledge. In Russia the goverment does not pay much attention to this desease. We see occurrences of xenophobia against people which are AIDS infected, though in many cases these people are infected due to the negligible work of doctors, incomplete systems of blood transfusion and nursing of newborns.

by Valentina Melnikova

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Vesna Pesic: Answertext will be available soon.

by Vesna Pesic

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Viviana Figueroa: Aids in Africa: how big is our responsibility? I think that the problem of Aids is a responsibility of all people and of every live being indwelling in all corners of the planet. It isn't a problem which only affects Africa. Long time ago it was published that problems centre [around] Africa, however for example in my village, [cases were already dictated that... and actually ... I don't know with what age we were informed that this HIV pandemic, this problem, this severe illness which doesn't have any solutions of the world transforms into ... for all corners of the planet... any indigenous village and any culture - we aren't far away the problem. As we all together have to work for taking revenge on this malady, we avoid to propagate again and we work to find some cures / cure possibilities concerning this malady. A lot of villages maintain good knowledges with regard to the cure of illness. It seems to exist villages which develop plants to cure... [that affects us in the same way like this malady affects other people]. However, this is a situation which we don't know exactly. I think that our knowledges will be retrieved. Probably in a lot of our villages exists a cure for this big problem which affects the world. Undoubted as we aren't far away, we must work on having all informations in a adequate way, in adequate languages. The health centers have to sensitise them(selves) to inform people about the virus, in adequate terms without doing any propagation. I don't think that there must be a responsability of particulars; it's a responsability of all people, not only Aids in Africa, but [propagated] all over the world.

by Viviana Figueroa

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Wim Wenders: So much has been said about that and so many good speak – good people have spoken up. It seems futile to add anything. Bono has answered this question once, and I quote him, because he has changed my perception of AIDS. He said, "Future generations will look at us and would judge us for what we have done in a face of this crisis." We’re all guilty in collaborating in mass murder if we close our eyes and we do not respond to the maximum of all possibilities. And I think we’re all far away from that maximum. Sometimes it is important to form an opinion, to think ahead and you many throw yourself into the future and look back, throw yourself into the year 2050 and look back at our time here and consider what we could have done what we should have done. Consider the worst, consider the apocalypse, and AIDS can become that apocalypse. And then ask yourself today, well, why don’t I do more, why don’t I show more compassion and passion. We should be afraid of what people will – of what the future generation will think of us. We should be very afraid.

by Wim Wenders

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Yassin Adnan: I am an African. So when the question is arose regarding AIDS in Africa, well I am Moroccan who admits of being African and consider Africa is one part not dividable in its multiple identities. Therefore I find myself being asked this question considering myself the subject as well. Therefore, I believe that it is everyone’s responsibility to think about this murderer in Africa, AIDS. I imagine that first a lot of effort must be made at the level of awareness, on the level of protection secondly, and later on the level of treatment, because when the patient is infected with AIDS in Africa the treatment possibilities are very limited to the medical crews to the countries of Africa, and to the ministries of health in African countries, in which people suffer from this disease. I believe that treatment in the majority of cases becomes impossible. Therefore, I believe that the first effort that must be made is primarily on the level of awareness and prevention at the secondly. Morocco for example, my own country, now AIDS has become spread in it. Fortunately, many from the civil society came out of the neutrality and from the reservation and started to confront the problem. Even the clergy understood the seriousness of the situation and have accepted it. There is a major effort at the level of making the people aware, awareness-raising started happening in Morocco. And all this is a surely positive. And I hope it would achieve in the end, what is intended and to besiege this disease and controlling it.

by Yassin Adnan

Sep 9, 2006 11:05:00 AM cite

Yungchen Lhamo: It is huge responsibility and I think we all can look African situation, so we can try to minimize and I think if you all can participate this and I think we change. If we say there is a problem and if we don’t act on it, it doesn’t change by themselves. And we are here in this world and we can make it better.

by Yungchen Lhamo